The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has accused a hacker group supported by the North Korean government with stealing $100 million in cryptocurrency last year.
The stolen cryptocurrency came through Harmony’s Horizon bridge, which enables users to move cryptocurrency between Blockchains.
The Lazarus Group (also known as APT28), which has its headquarters in North Korea, is responsible for the theft of $100 million of virtual currency from Harmony’s Horizon bridge reported on June 24, 2022,” per a statement from the FBI.
“On Friday, January 13, 2023, North Korean cyber actors used RAILGUN, a privacy protocol, to launder over $60 million worth of ethereum (ETH) stolen during the June 2022 heist,” said the FBI.
Following the theft, some of this ethereum was transferred to various virtual asset service providers and converted to bitcoin (BTC).
In cooperation with several of the virtual asset service providers, a portion of these money were frozen.
Eleven cryptocurrency wallets where the remaining $40 million in stolen bitcoin were transferred were also made public by the FBI.
According to the agency, it is still identifying and blocking North Korea’s theft and laundering of virtual money, which is done to finance its ballistic missile and WMD programs.
The DPRK’s exploitation of illegal operations, such as cybercrime and virtual currency theft, to make money for the dictatorship will continue to be exposed and combated, says the FBI.
News Source: Roundnews24
